Gone, But Never Forgotten
by Vicious-kun
Summary: Cloud's POV during that infamous death scene. Please R&R, Onegai Shimasu!!


Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy (just all the PSX games), so don't bother suing me, since all you'll get is an IOU. :P I wrote this story trying to put myself in Cloud's place, during that imfamous death scene. Anyways I hope you like it ^_^   
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Gone, But Never Forgotten   
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Cloud Strife slowly walked toward Aerith as she sat locked in prayer. They were on a platform high above the water, deep within the Forgotten City of the Ancients. In contrast to the darkness of nightfall outside the temple, it was actually quite well lit, as if by some mystical, almost holy source of light.   
Aerith slowly looked up to see him. "Cloud?" she whispered. As much as she wanted to run to her loved one, she could not. She had a ritual to perform. She was the last remaining Cetra… the last of her kind, and she was the only one who could pray to Holy to stop Meteor from colliding with the Planet.   
Just then Cloud felt something… he was beginning to lose control of his own body. He felt it again… The same feeling as when he gave the Black Materia to Sephiroth, and actually hurt Aerith. He knew he would never do such a thing at his own free will… he felt as if he were being controlled, like a puppet… but who was holding his strings?   
Cloud drew his Buster Sword and, against his will, stood before Aerith, as he raised it high above his head, ready to strike downward with a powerful thrust.   
"I…. Must…. Fight it…." he thought, as his whole body shook to fight whatever it was that had him in such a sadistic trance. Just as he swung downward, he managed to gain control and stop in mid-swing. He barely stopped short of Aerith, who remained still, innocently praying to Holy.   
A shadow slowly began to cast over the Last of the Ancients. A dark shadow that slowly spread over her as it fell closer. Cloud looked up and saw a figure in a dark cloak, with shimmering silver hair and a blade glistening in the holy light, a blade that was unworthy of such virtue.   
It was him… Sephiroth. The man of legend, the man whom Cloud envied since the day he heard of, and the man who burned down his hometown village of Nibelheim five years ago… Sephiroth, falling in on Aerith, his black cloak flowing in the wind, his shining blade of sin pointed downward, aiming for the heart of innocence that prayed helplessly below.   
Cloud was powerless… he could do nothing. His body could not move, it was if he was being held in place… He could only watch, as Sephiroth landed behind Aerith, sending his sword through her gut, and its blood-stained blade out her front.   
Aerith fell forward, nearly collapsing but remaining on her knees, her eyes falling out of focus, then nearly bulging from their sockets at the horrid sight of a sword through her stomach. Her jaw fell open, as blood dripped down the side of her mouth.   
Sephiroth showed no sign of remorse, no guilt, as if Aerith, the last of the Ancients, was nothing more than another victim, one of thousands to fall to his Masamune Blade. His head held down, his eyes closed, his face showing no sign of emotion. He twisted the sword in his hand, causing Aerith to suffer beyond anything she'd ever felt before. She winced in pain, as she struggled to keep from collapsing.   
Cloud, unable to do anything, could only stand and watch, physically unable to move. Tears ran down his cheeks as his one true love looked back at him, a tear running down her cheek as well. "Cloud…" she whispered, as she coughed up blood.   
Aerith's ribbon loosened and fell from her hair, as the White Materia, the magical orb that Aerith had treasured for her entire life, fell with it. As Cloud watched it bounce and fall to the water below, all the memories of the innocent flower girl came back to him in an instant.   
Sephiroth slowly lifted his head. He looked to Cloud, and slowly turned away from him, showing an evil smirk as he pulled his sword from Aerith's back, it's blade stained with the blood of the last Cetra. Aerith fell forward, and before her eyes closed and her vision faded to black, the last thing she saw was Cloud running to catch her before she could fall to the floor.   
"Aerith…" he said, as he shook her, not knowing that she was already gone. "This can't be real!"   
"Do not worry," interrupted Sephiroth, who stood behind him, his arms wide open, as if he were feeling some great power for killing such an innocent young girl.   
"Soon the girl will become part of the Planet's energy. All that is left is to go North. The 'Promised Land' waits for me over the snowy fields. There, I will become a new being by uniting with the Planet… As will this girl-"   
"SHUT UP!!!" Cloud yelled, as he could take no more of Sephiroth's insane ramblings. He looked to the silver-haired madman who killed his soulmate.   
"The cycle of nature and your stupid plan don't mean a thing," he said, snarling. "Aerith is gone." Cloud turned back to her, tears pouring from his eyes onto her blood-soaked dress.   
"Aerith will no longer talk, no longer laugh, cry… or get angry…" he said, lowering his head, struggling to remain calm. "What about us… what are WE supposed to do?"   
Cloud, accepting that there was nothing more that he could do for Aerith, slowly released her, setting her to the floor. "What about my pain?" said the mercenary, feeling all alone again, not knowing where to go without his beloved.   
"My fingers are tingling…" As tears poured like a waterfall from his Mako-blue eyes, his memory flashed back to when he first met Aerith on the streets of Midgar, and bought a flower from her, not knowing that things would end the way they did.   
"My mouth is dry…" He then remembered how he protected Aerith in the slums of Sector 7. Her "bodyguard" as she called him, and he had now failed to protect her when she needed it the most.   
"My eyes are burning!" He remembered how she came into his room at the Gold Saucer late one night, asking him out on a date that they would have never forgotten… if it weren't for Sephiroth's maniacal plans.   
Sephiroth looked back down at the ex-SOLDIER of Nibelheim, as he sobbed over Aerith, his tears almost washing away the blood of her fatal wound. "What are you saying? Are you trying to tell me you have feelings too?"   
Cloud could take no more. He spun around to face his worst enemy, his tears suspended in the air for a moment before they fell to droplets on the floor. "Of course! Who do you think I am!?"   
Sephiroth began to laugh evilly. "Ha, ha, ha…… Stop acting as if you were sad." Cloud's tears shimmered as they fell, looking almost like tiny crystals shattering into millions of pieces as they hit the floor.   
There's no need to act as though you're angry, either." Cloud was perplexed at what the madman before him was telling him. Sephiroth began to levitate above the platform, as Cloud looked up to him, his eyes gleaming in the mystical ray of light that was cast down before him.   
"Because, Cloud… You are…" Cloud awaited Sephiroth's mystifying words, but he did not complete his sentence, not before flying away, spinning as he went. Cloud watched as a small black object fell before him, which landed with a blinding light, and liquefied into a sinister Jenova-LIFE.   
Cloud drew his Buster Sword just as his allies Tifa and Barret arrived at his side, ready to fight alongside him against the monstrosity. While Tifa was adjusting her gloves and Barret was loading his Gun-arm, Cloud looked to the opposite side of the platform, and saw his beloved lying there in a peaceful rest, one of which she would never wake from.   
Cloud glared to Jenova-LIFE as a single tear dropped from his eye. It hit the floor, spattering as it did so… a final tear, before Cloud pulled himself together, ready to fight in her honor… No matter the cost.   
Jenova-LIFE lashed out with a powerful Aqualung attack, dealing a devastating blow to the already low-spirited Cloud, and his allies, who would do anything for him, especially in such a dire time. They knew how deeply Cloud cared for Aerith, and though their lives were now hanging by a thread, they would continue to fight, even to the death.   
Cloud, severely weakened from such a destructive assault by Jenova, could take no more… As he stood there, his sword dragging on the floor, he ran his fastest to the hideous Jenova monster and unleashed a powerful Omnislash, as if in a trance, muttering words with every slash of his weapon.   
"You…. Took…. Aerith…. Away…. From…. Me…. And…. I…. Will…. Not…. Let…. You…. Live…."   
Every slash more powerful than the last, he continued, every swing bringing him closer to the brink of insanity.   
"Se…. phi…. roth…. This…. Is…. All…. Your…. Fault…. I…. Will…. Kill…. You…. Too…."   
As he put his body into overdrive, he let loose with a final devastating slash, one more powerful than he had ever done before in his life…   
"DIE!!!!!!" he cried out as he decimated Jenova-LIFE, as the monster faded out to red and disappeared. As red sparks flew out everywhere from Jenova-LIFE's wake, Cloud heard her last words in his head…   
"Because, you are…… a puppet." Those perplexing words were followed by a dead silence, as Cloud tried to understand what she was telling him.   
"I'm…… puppet?" Cloud wondered, as he swung his sword around in his hand, the red sparks of Jenova-LIFE trailing behind his blade, as he hooked it into place on his back. He then looked to the innocent flower girl that lied dead before him.   
To others, she was just another of Sephiroth's victims, but to Cloud, she was so much more than that… She was truly unique, the last of her race, the ancient Cetra whom were one with the spirit of the Planet… She was kind, and sweet, and Cait Sith said they would be together for the rest of their lives… And they would have, if not for Sephiroth's plans… Plans that were beyond the boundaries of evil itself… To summon a force of pure evil from beyond the stars and destroy the very essence of life on the Planet itself.   
Barret and Tifa, recovered from the battle, looked to the body of Aerith Gainsborough, speechless. There was nothing to say… she had died a pointless death. They both had their own losses… Barret's village was burned to the ground by the Shin-Ra, and Tifa's hometown was destroyed as well, her own father killed in cold blood by the merciless Sephiroth himself.   
Barret walked to Aerith's body, looking down to her. He hung his head low in great sorrow, and for once, pitied Cloud for such a terrible loss, crying as the mercenary had earlier, but nowhere near as much…   
After all, Cloud had become so close to her, A bodyguard, a boyfriend, and yet failed to guard her against the evil Sephiroth, a fellow First-Class SOLDIER. Even though Cloud knew he stood no chance against Sephiroth's awesome power at the moment, he would have much rather taken the deathblow for Aerith, so at least she could live on and save the Planet from Meteor.   
Barret walked over to the devastated Cloud Strife, and put an arm around him, unable to think of what to say, only able to give Cloud a shrug before walking away. A shrug… Cloud should have given him an Omnislash as well, but he didn't… He knew in his heart that Barret meant no harm by it, and that his shrug said what a thousand words could never say… That Aerith was gone, and that there was nothing more they could do for her.   
Tifa slowly walked to the last Cetra, about ready to cry as well. She knelt beside her, and stroked her pointy bangs down to the end, remembering how deeply Cloud cared for the young flower merchant, how even though Aerith stole Cloud's love just when Tifa was about to open up to him, she didn't care at all… She felt nothing but pity for the innocent kind soul before her, as she broke into tears and turned around, running away crying.   
Cloud had to suffer the worst torment now… the young mercenary knew that the last of the Ancients deserved a proper funeral, and it was he who had to carry her to a final resting place.   
He picked her up, cradled in his arms, wishing that she could have been alive as he carried her. He wished that could have saved her from Sephiroth and that they could both live happily ever after, but this was no fairy tale… this was a cold, harsh world overrun by monsters, ruled by an evil corporation, and would soon be destroyed by an even greater force in the universe, one unlike any seen before.   
He carried her to a nearby lake inside the temple, one very placid and calm, looking as peaceful as the innocent soul he was carrying. Barret and Tifa stood back as he walked out to the center, just before a great underwater drop-off.   
Cloud gently set Aerith to rest, as she slowly sank into the water below, her body descending beneath the surface, until she disappeared into the blue haze. Cloud watched, all his memories of the short time he knew the flower girl coming back to him in a flash…The best memories of his life, with everything else from his past haunting him, and it all had to end so soon… She was gone, out of his life and the lives of those who knew her. Gone, never to return to him.   
* * *   
"Aerith……" Cloud murmured, before his eyes shot open, and he sat up with a jerk, shivering as his body was covered in cold sweat. It was all a horrible nightmare of something that happened to him several years ago, a day that he would never forget… Every year on that day, he and his friends would return to the Forgotten City and leave a basket of flowers at the shore of her resting place.   
Cloud then remembered how he finally brought an end to Sephiroth, the look on his face after he dealt an Omnislash on him. He remembered it well, with a sadistic pleasure, the sad look in the eyes of the One-Winged Angel, as blood dripped down his forehead, the second before his body disintegrated into nothing, returning to the Planet for an eternal torment.   
He remembered how he was reunited with Aerith's spirit for a moment, before he and the others had to escape from the cave, as Holy awakened and fought it's best to stop Meteor.   
He remembered everything, and gave a slight smile, but then fading back to a frown of depression, as he knew that he would not see Aerith again, ever… at least not in his own lifetime… Perhaps someday, he would be reunited with her in the Lifestream, but until then, he would have to live out every agonizing day in the memory of his dear Aerith.   
Cloud slowly dozed back off to sleep, staring at the flower on his desk… The flower that he had bought from Aerith on that fateful day in Midgar. The flower that he had crystallized in mako, practically laminated in materia. The only thing he had left to remember her by.   
  
"You're….. Gone……"


End file.
